title: Virtual reality exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This is the first randomized trial comparing virtual reality exposure therapy to in vivo exposure for social anxiety disorder.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants with a principal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder who identified public speaking as their primary fear (N = 97) were recruited from the community, resulting in an ethnically diverse sample (M age = 39 years) of mostly women (62%). Participants were randomly assigned to and completed 8 sessions of manualized virtual reality exposure therapy, exposure group therapy, or wait list. Standardized self-report measures were collected at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 12-month follow-up, and process measures were collected during treatment. A standardized speech task was delivered at pre- and posttreatment, and diagnostic status was reassessed at 3-month follow-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analysis of covariance showed that, relative to wait list, people completing either active treatment significantly improved on all but one measure (length of speech for exposure group therapy and self-reported fear of negative evaluation for virtual reality exposure therapy). At 12-month follow-up, people showed significant improvement from pretreatment on all measures. There were no differences between the active treatments on any process or outcome measure at any time, nor differences on achieving partial or full remission.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Virtual reality exposure therapy is effective for treating social fears, and improvement is maintained for 1 year. Virtual reality exposure therapy is equally effective as exposure group therapy; further research with a larger sample is needed, however, to better control and statistically test differences between the treatments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia State University.
authors.forename: Page L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: Shannan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Mayowa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Obasaju
authors.forename: Stefan K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Schmertz
authors.forename: Elana
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zimand
authors.forename: Martha R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Calamaras
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007171:Implosive Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult